state law says you have to wait ten days before you open those provisional ballots and count them. now this will matter if the margin is close. let's say it's under 100,000 and say 200,000 provisional ballots were cast. but state officials are convinced that they'll be able to call the election tuesday night, that they won't have this problem. but certainly both parties have been, you know, alerting people to the possibility of this. they've put lawyers in place. they have poll watchers all across the state ready to monitor this. but certainly could be an issue to watch tuesday night. >> we do not want to be counting ballots on november 17th. that would not be a good idea. mark and ed, get back to it. we'll see you here again. thank you so much. >>> in this week's office politics, my conversation with tom brokaw. we talk about the crossroads this country has come to and what the history books may say about this election. but i began by asking tom how hurricane sandy compares with the many other natural disasters he has covered. >> you know, in an odd way, it reminded me of being in